﻿182 Bejjorts and Proceedings — 



In handing the balance of the proceeds of the Lyell Fund to the Eev. Thomas 

 Wiltshire, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., for transmission to Mr. William Pengelly, F.R.S., 

 F.G.S., the President said: — 



Mr. Wiltshire, — The Council of the Society have awarded to Mr. Pengelly the 

 balance of the proceeds of the Lyell Fund, I may say unanimously, as an evidence of 

 their thorough appreciation of his long and successful labours in the Geology of 

 Devonshire, and his untiring devotion to the great task of extending scientific know- 

 ledge relating to the antiquity of man. By his systematic survey and labour in 

 Kent's Cavern, especially, he has not only excited attention on this important suhject, 

 but has elaborated facts which will last as long as science. Thanks to his great 

 energy and perseverance, he has kept up a love for geological science in his county ; 

 and this has been mainly due to the results of his work among the rocks of Devon- 

 shire. In presenting this fund to you for transmission to Mr. Pengelly, I feel that 

 the good opinion which his fellow-geologists have of him and his work cannot be 

 sufficiently expressed by me; but I trust that this recognition of his services to 

 science will be felt by him as a slight reward for many years' arduous devotion to 

 Geology. 



Mr. Wiltshire replied : — Mr. President, — It is a subject of regret to Mr. Pengelly 

 that he is prevented by public engagements from receiving to-day in person the 

 award of the Lyell Trust Fund. Mr. Pengelly, while deputing me to be his repre- 

 sentative, has begged me to convey to the Society his high appreciation of the honour 

 conferred upon him. The award, he writes, seems to bring him once more into 

 communion with the spirit of his old friend the founder of the trust, and will be an 

 additional motive for still following up those investigations in Kent's Cavern and in 

 the county of Devonshire which so long were approved of by the late Sir Charles 

 Lyell. 



The President then handed the Bigsby Medal to Mr. Hulke, F.R.S., F.G.S., for 

 transmission to Prof. O. C. Marsh, F.G.S., and addressed him as follows : — 



Mr. Hulke, — The Council of this Society have awarded the Bigsby Medal to 

 Prof. 0. C. Marsh, F.G.S., of Yale College, Connecticut, U.S., and I trust that in 

 forwarding this testimony of our admiration of his abilities and work, you will 

 explain to him that, being a Fellow of the Society, we cannot enrol him amongst 

 our Foreign Correspondents and Members, but that we can offer him the first medal 

 given by one who has laboured long and successfully in the field of American Geology. 



The Medal is given in recognition of the great services which Prof. Marsh has 

 rendered to the palseontology of the Vertebrata. He has distinguished himself by 

 studying the fossil remains of nearly every great group of the Vertebrata from the 

 Palffiozoic, Cretaceous, and Cainozoic strata of the New World. The field of his 

 research has been immense, but it has been very correct; and his descriptive and 

 classificatory palseontological work indicates his effective grasp of anatomical details, 

 and his great power as a comparative osteologist. 



Prof. Marsh's early work was upon an Enaliosaurian from the Coal-formation of 

 Nova Scotia ; but this limited field of vertebrate research was soon left for the fossils 

 of the wonderful country in the western territories of the United States. The Cre- 

 taceous series yielded the remarkable fossil birds, whose examination has been due to 

 Professor Marsh ; he added to the knowledge of the Pythonomorpha from the same 

 series by distinguishing the pelvic girdle and the hind limbs. The Pterodactyles 

 have been his especial study, as have also the Mosasaurs of New Jersey and the 

 Tylosaiiri and Lestosauri of Kansas. The fossil fish of the Niobrara gi'oup have 

 been in part worked out by him. Interesting and important as have been these 

 researches in the lower vertebrates, they are surpassed by Prof. Marsh's palseon- 

 tological contributions regarding the Mammalia of the post-Cretaceous ages. He 

 has described some of the Oreodontidse, those interesting Artiodactyles of the Miocene 

 of Oregon ; and he has illustrated and contributed to our knowledge of the Perisso- 

 dactyles of the so-called Eocene of the western territories of his country, the genera 

 Falaonyops, Limnohyiis, Lophiodon, Hyrachyus, and Limnotherium being especially 

 studied. His researches amongst the DinoceratidaB are familiar to every geologist, 

 and most anatomists will admire his labours amongst the fossil Rodentia. Prof. 

 Marsh, moreover, has paid great attention to and described fossil species of Crocodilia, 

 Lacertilia, and Glyptosauria, from the same series of strata, whose stratigraphical 

 position is still a matter of debate. I trust that you will, as a brother palaeontologist 

 labouring somewhat in the same field, exj^ress to Prof. Marsh the appreciation we all 

 have of his interesting and valuable contributions to our science. 



